Douglas Carswell

Douglas Carswell was first elected to Parliament in 2005 by a slender 920 votes. He was returned as MP for Clacton in 2010 with a 12,000 majority. He is the author of The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy and believes that the internet is making the world a vastly better place.

Today's reshuffle shows how diminished British democracy has become

Will Biffy get Squiffy’s job? Does the promotion of Wiffy mean that it is looking iffy for Piffy?

The political lobby is in full flow, carefully assessing the latest reshuffle – and what this round of ministerial snakes and ladders it means for the way we are governed. Beyond that, few will see in it any wider significance.

Yet today’s reshuffle tells us a great deal about the way that our country is run.

The story today will be illustrated with images of various MPs get summoned to 10 Downing Street to be made a minister. But for 217 years, if a backbench MP was invited by the Prime Minister to join his government, it did not end there.

From 1701 until 1918, instead of skipping off to their new department with a grin, the lucky MP had to resign their seat, win a by-election – and only then take up their office.

Why? Because an MP joining the government was deemed to be changing sides. Having been elected as a Member of Parliament – and thus to hold ministers to account – they needed to get their constituents' permission before they themselves went and became one. It was, if you like, the ultimate confirmation hearing. A glorious English expression of the separation of powers.

Naturally, it was a nuisance for the executive, so they quietly dropped it.

Today we will also be told that several ministers will get beefed-up portfolios. Smith will be given extra responsibility for widgets, and Jones will have to cope with the loss.

But on whose say-so? Whichever gang is currently sitting on the Downing Street sofas.

Until the 1975 Ministers of the Crown Act, it was not up to any clique in Downing Street to decide what areas of public policy a minister was responsible for. That decision rested with those elected by the public. Only the House of Commons was able to determine areas of ministerial responsibility.

What today’s reshuffle really tells us is how diminished the House of Commons has become. Far from those we elect deciding how the country is run, many of them today are clutching their mobile phones, desperately hoping that they will be allowed to pretend to run a little slice of the Whitehall machine.